Deuteronomy 1:5

Summary

The verse locates Moses geographically ("on the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab") and states the action he undertook: explaining this law/teaching. The Hebrew frames this with two verbs in sequence, one describing his resolve or initiative and the other the actual act of clarification.

Key words

• 'Ever ("[the] other side of", H5676H) — masculine singular construct noun, establishing a spatial reference point relative to the Jordan.
• ho'Il ("he undertook", H2974) — hiphil perfect, third person masculine singular; the causative stem here conveys taking something upon oneself or resolving to act, not merely "beginning."
• be'Er ("he made clear", H0874) — piel perfect, third person masculine singular; the intensive stem indicates a thorough or emphatic act of clarification/explanation, distinct from a simple qal "to say" or "to speak."
• toRah ("law", H8451) — feminine singular noun, the object being clarified, marked definite by the following ha-zot ("this").
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed le- (H9005), introducing the discourse that follows the verse, a standard formula marking the onset of direct speech.

What the text says

The verse opens with two stacked prepositional phrases — be'Ever hayYarden ("on the other side of the Jordan") and be'Eretz Mo'av ("in the land of Moab") — both using construct nouns ('Ever, 'Eretz) to pinpoint location before the grammatical subject appears. Only after this spatial setup does the sentence introduce Moshe as subject, followed immediately by two finite verbs in sequence: ho'Il (hiphil perfect) and be'Er (piel perfect). This pairing is grammatically notable — the hiphil of the root behind ho'Il conveys the notion of undertaking or resolving to do something, while the piel of be'Er denotes the intensive act of making something clear or expounding it. Together they describe not just that Moses spoke, but that he took it upon himself to expound the toRah ("law", H8451) thoroughly. The object is marked by the untranslated direct object particle 'et (H0853) and made definite by ha-zot ("this"), specifying a particular body of teaching. The clause ends with leMor ("saying"), the standard infinitival hinge that opens the following discourse.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb ho'Il (hiphil, "he undertook/resolved") is rendered by the LXX as ἤρξατο ("he began") and by the Vulgate as coepit ("began"), a rendering followed by the BSB, RV1909, and SBLIBRE ("began to explain/declare"). This shifts the nuance from an emphasis on Moses' resolve or initiative toward a simple temporal marker of commencement. The piel verb be'Er ("he made clear/expounded") is translated with comparable intensifying force across versions: LXX διασαφῆσαι ("to explain fully"), Vulgate explanare ("to explain"), and English versions "explain" or "declare."